“Nearly 25% of Americans Over 85 Need Personal Care,” by Tim Regan, Senior Housing News Quote: “It’s no secret that the need for caregiving services tends to grow with age, but a newly released report from the federal Administration for Community Living sheds light on just how many older adults in the U.S. need personal care. The percentage of older adults age 85 and older needing help with personal care was 22% between January and June of last year. That’s more than twice the amount of people between the ages of 75 and 84 (9%) and more than six times
Read More

“Even Mild Concussion Tied to Greater Dementia Risk Later,” by Alan Mozes, HealthDay Quote:   “Concussions, even those that are mild, more than double the risk for developing dementia down the road, new research suggests. The findings stem from an analysis that tracked concussions and dementia risk among nearly 360,000 military veterans. … In the end, the team found that less than 3 percent of the non-TBI group went on to develop dementia, compared with just over 6 percent of the TBI group.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, Administrative Coordinator, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): More bad news for
Read More

“Retirees: Here’s Why You Might Be Investing All Wrong,” by Motley Fool, Fox Business Quote:   “Sometimes, investing isn’t even the right way to handle some financial needs. If long-term care worries are paramount, then it might be more cost-effective to obtain long-term care insurance Opens a New Window.  than to set aside the hundreds of thousands of dollars you’d need to cover such costs on your own. That way, you can pay the premium and then utilize the rest of your retirement savings more effectively, knowing that you have your long-term-care risk under control.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A.
Read More

“Obesity soars among long-stay nursing home residents,” by Kimberly Marselas, McKnight’s LTC News Quote:   “The rate of obese nursing home residents jumped from 22% to 28% between 2005 and 2015, according to research presented at the 2018 American Geriatrics Society conference. … In 2015, Class III residents, the most severely obese, were younger than the others. They also had more chronic conditions but lower rates of functional or cognitive decline” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, Administrative Coordinator, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): The vast majority of long-stay nursing home residents rely on Medicaid. The trend toward younger, obese,
Read More

“Eating a Mediterranean Diet Could Delay Alzheimer’s Disease by Years,” by Dana Dovey, Newsweek Quote:   “A study published last month suggests that a Mediterranean diet isn’t just good for your heart and waistline but can also stave off the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by as much as three and a half years. The findings may present another reason for you to add more fish and olive oil to your diet. … Results revealed that individuals who reported a lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet displayed more biological risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease at both baseline and at the end
Read More

“The Myth of Outliving Your Retirement Savings,” by Gail MarksJarvis, Reuters Quote: “Most retirement research points to an impending retirement crisis for about half of Americans who save too little. But a new study suggests that behavior like Anderson’s makes the outlook far less dire. Because people worry about outlasting their savings, most adjust by living humbly – often overly so. Consequently, they make even modest savings last for years longer than expected by researchers. “What can devastate financially are divorce, caring for a mentally or physically ill adult child who cannot work, and long-term care expenses, according to the
Read More

“Federal Panel Puts Off Dementia Financial Burden Battle,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor Quote: “A team that’s part of what was supposed to be an ambitious effort to fight Alzheimer’s disease, and other forms of dementia, has put off making any major proposals related to paying for long-term care services. The team, the National Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care and Services, is simply recommending that the United States try to get more information about the impact of dementia-related costs on people with dementia and their caregivers. The country should ‘develop information about the impact’ and “identify approaches to address negative effects,” the
Read More

“Medicare Advantage Plans Can Pay for Many LTC Services in 2019: Feds,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor Quote: “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is getting ready to let Medicare Advantage plan issuers add major new long-term care benefits to their supplemental benefits menus.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Medicaid made nursing home care free in 1965 without enforcing spend-down rules thus desensitizing the public to LTC risk, locking in institutional bias, and impeding private financing of LTC through savings, home equity conversion and private insurance. This new government venture into “free LTC”
Read More